Hid Headlight Aim

byohzrd · March 29, 2004

Lately I've been doing a lot of night driving, and I've noticed the following: The factory HID lights on my 2000 ES don't seem to illuminate much of the road. They shine out about one car length and are cut off in a straight line. Beyond that point, it is pitch black... the lights barely even illuminate signs and mile markers.

The levelling system seems to be working normally... they level themselves up, down, and center when the car is turned on, and the dash light hasn't come on. This is my first vehicle with HID, and I don't know if this is normal. It feels as though I'm driving in the dark, as I can literally see nothing more than one car length ahead. Is there some sort of adjustment that can be made? Is this normal for HID lights?

zeta · March 30, 2004

i personally don't have much experience with the self-leveling HID's, but that could be something wrong with the leveling sensor, telling it to level too low from it's original height. i'm not sure though. anyone with self-leveling HID's could fill you in, but it's always worth a shot to just go to lexus and ask someone there if they know what it could be. but then again they always want money, so they'll say the most expensive thing on your car is broken and needs fixing. lol. shouldn't be too hard a problem to fix though. good luck.

kev

iammikey · March 30, 2004

I do most of my driving at night and have the same complaint on my 330. The dealer said it's set to spec and is against adjusting it since it will blind oncoming drivers. I'll be adding Sylvania Xenarc HID driving lights to my car just as soon as I can find a body kit.

Latoilette · March 30, 2004

that's weird.

i have 95 with aftermarket HID, it works great.

SKperformance · March 30, 2004

It is not weird ,first the 97-01 don't have projectors which makes the light less usable in a focused beam for a sharp cut off. Second you have to adjust to hid's as it is such a sharper cut off than halogen ,anywhere which is not directly illumitnaed will look darker to almost black as your eyes can;t adjust to that much difference in light.

iammikey · March 31, 2004

So do you think the HID driving lights are a waste of money? I wanna be able to see any possible objects on the road and maneuver around it instead of hitting it.

Here are the lights I'm referring to: http://store.yahoo.com/rodi/sylxenx1auxl.h...364&PID=1323201

SKperformance · March 31, 2004

hid's are amazing compared to regular lighting.

You have to get used to it but if you have bad nightvision you may want to get a set of wide beam yellow foglights to fill other areas .

Lexusfreak · April 1, 2004

You can always use your brights as well (not in the face of oncoming traffic mind you) but It's funny, my 01 Maxima had factory halagon with the projection feature & were extremely bright & would shine quite far & over a wide area too at night......the H.I.D.'s are bright for a short distance as mentioned but longer visibility is hampered (especially when traveling on non lit roads at night time). Sorta makes the H.I.D.'s seem redundant to some degree dosen't it? :unsure: I guess I was expecting something much brighter than what I already had is all. :( A bit disappointing I'd say.